1/18/09

- The Morning News's Tournament of the Books is starting back up again. This year features heavyweights such as Bolano and Marilyn Robinson plus new faces like Mark Sarvas and Keith Lee Morris. Should be good.

1/1/09

Unlike James, I'm not going to review every book I finished in 2008. Face it, you weren't going to read all that anyway. As explained here, I made a New Year's resolution to finish 50 books in 2008. I say finish because I counted any book I started in another year but finished now (such as Infinite Jest, which I started way back in 2005 I think) and excluded any book I started this year but have not completed (The True History of the Kelly Gang, Yonder Stands Your Orphan, etc.)

Housekeeping by Marilynne RobinsonA Fan’s Notes by Frederick ExleyRock Springs by Richard FordThe World Doesn't End by Charles SimicGhost Town by Robert CooverInfinite Jest by David Foster WallaceHomeland by Sam LipsyteWhat I'd Say to the Martians by Jack HandeyCivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George SaundersThe Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

11 Honorable mentions:

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by G. G. MarquezMinor Robberies by Deb Olin UnferthRay by Barry HannahThe Bloody Chamber by Angela CarterI Killed Adolf Hitler by JasonVenus Drive by Sam LipsyteStars of the New Curfew by Ben OkriAnt Farm by Simon RichNovels in Three Lines by Felix FeneonI Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down by William GayEternal Enemies by Adam Zagajewski